What are best practices for managing session data in PHP applications?

Session data in PHP applications should be properly managed to ensure security and efficiency. Best practices include using HTTPS to encrypt session data, setting session cookie parameters securely, validating and sanitizing input data before storing it in the session, and periodically regenerating session IDs to prevent session fixation attacks. 

// Start session
session_start();

// Set session cookie parameters securely
session_set_cookie_params([
    'lifetime' => 3600,
    'path' => '/',
    'domain' => 'example.com',
    'secure' => true,
    'httponly' => true
]);

// Validate and sanitize input data before storing in the session
$_SESSION['user_id'] = filter_var($_POST['user_id'], FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT);

// Regenerate session ID periodically
if (rand(1, 100) <= 5) {
    session_regenerate_id(true);
}

Keywords

session data PHP applications security encryption cookies

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